Innovative Buttercream Cakes

Create the dreamiest and most delicious cakes your clients have seen or tasted. Use luscious buttercream and new techniques to make three uniquely enticing designs.

Use melt-in-your-mouth buttercream and innovative methods to create inspired cake designs alongside Valeri Valeriano and Christina Ong, the owners of London’s famous Queen of Hearts Couture Cakes. Find out how to make their signature buttercream recipe, tint it to any color — even tricky hues like black and red — and pipe it with confidence. Transfer gorgeous patterns onto your cakes and fill them with dots of buttercream bursting with color and dimension. Learn to mark and pipe an elegant web of delicate lace. Uncover the secrets of using palette knives to blend colors beautifully and create textured backgrounds abloom with vibrant flowers. Achieve the ultimate in irresistible cakes as you create alluring designs with heavenly buttercream.

Lesson plan

Lesson 1. Introduction & Making Buttercream

Meet your instructors, world-renowned cake designers and buttercream experts Christina Ong and Valeri Valeriano as you preview the three innovative and on-trend techniques you’ll master in this class. Then, discover the secrets behind making and coloring perfect buttercream every time. Finally, Valeri will share all of her insider tips on getting your buttercream-covered cakes perfectly smooth — so smooth customers might think they’re covered in fondant!

12:29

Lesson 2. Floral Dot Cake: Part One

Discover how stunning and artistic buttercream can be as you make the Floral Dot cake. Christina shows you how to use a pattern to trace the outline of your design in buttercream before transferring it to the cake. Prefer to draw freehand? No problem; you’ll learn how to do it on paper or directly on your cake!

24:39

Lesson 3. Floral Dot Cake: Part Two

It’s time to transfer your pattern to the cake. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look perfect; Christina will show you how to fill in lines and clean up your design. Now you’ll pipe the dots! Start with the borders and then work in the details, one flower — and one dot — at a time. You’ll love the modern and lush look of this technique as you add dramatic color. Gather tips for perfect piping from how to hold your bag to how to position your body while you pipe.

28:39

Lesson 4. Lace Cake

Heighten the drama and the piping with Christina’s inventive technique for creating lace. Learn to freehand your design directly onto the cake and then add a beautiful, hand-piped lace effect that will take your decorating to a new level! Use over-piping to pull out more details and design highlights.

22:21

Lesson 5. Palette Knife Painted Cake: Technique

Explore the romantic and evocative designs you can create using a palette knife to “paint” the buttercream right onto the cake. Valeri will preview the tools and then take you through the movements that make up the different strokes you’ll use. Gain confidence blending colors and creating texture — grass, sky and even petals — using just your knife.

23:17

Lesson 6. Palette Knife Painted Cake

You don’t have to be a 19th century master to paint like one. Learn to use your favorite image as inspiration and turn it into a template as Valeri shows you what details are most important in conveying the essence of the design. Then, start painting using the skills learned in Lesson 5! Discover how to create dimension using shadow and how to add a background, filler flowers and leaves to your masterpiece.

"I love that I now have techniques to create a beautiful, one-of-a-kind cakes without having to be a born artist! " - NanBPMassachusetts

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Lesson plan

38:36

Lesson 1. Introduction & Making Buttercream

Meet your instructors, world-renowned cake designers and buttercream experts Christina Ong and Valeri Valeriano as you preview the three innovative and on-trend techniques you’ll master in this class. Then, discover the secrets behind making and coloring perfect buttercream every time. Finally, Valeri will share all of her insider tips on getting your buttercream-covered cakes perfectly smooth — so smooth customers might think they’re covered in fondant!

12:29

Lesson 2. Floral Dot Cake: Part One

Discover how stunning and artistic buttercream can be as you make the Floral Dot cake. Christina shows you how to use a pattern to trace the outline of your design in buttercream before transferring it to the cake. Prefer to draw freehand? No problem; you’ll learn how to do it on paper or directly on your cake!

24:39

Lesson 3. Floral Dot Cake: Part Two

It’s time to transfer your pattern to the cake. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look perfect; Christina will show you how to fill in lines and clean up your design. Now you’ll pipe the dots! Start with the borders and then work in the details, one flower — and one dot — at a time. You’ll love the modern and lush look of this technique as you add dramatic color. Gather tips for perfect piping from how to hold your bag to how to position your body while you pipe.

28:39

Lesson 4. Lace Cake

Heighten the drama and the piping with Christina’s inventive technique for creating lace. Learn to freehand your design directly onto the cake and then add a beautiful, hand-piped lace effect that will take your decorating to a new level! Use over-piping to pull out more details and design highlights.

22:21

Lesson 5. Palette Knife Painted Cake: Technique

Explore the romantic and evocative designs you can create using a palette knife to “paint” the buttercream right onto the cake. Valeri will preview the tools and then take you through the movements that make up the different strokes you’ll use. Gain confidence blending colors and creating texture — grass, sky and even petals — using just your knife.

23:17

Lesson 6. Palette Knife Painted Cake

You don’t have to be a 19th century master to paint like one. Learn to use your favorite image as inspiration and turn it into a template as Valeri shows you what details are most important in conveying the essence of the design. Then, start painting using the skills learned in Lesson 5! Discover how to create dimension using shadow and how to add a background, filler flowers and leaves to your masterpiece.

Valeri Valeriano and Christina Ong are the owners of Queen of Hearts Couture Cakes, a multi-award-winning cake company based in London. They are the authors of The Contemporary Buttercream Bible, and their cakes have been featured both in print and on TV. They have demonstrated at exhibitions in the U.K. including The National Wedding Show, The Cake International Show, The Cake & Bake Show, Squires Kitchen’s annual sugarcraft exhibition and more. Valeri and Christina teach classes in Europe, the U.S, Asia and on Craftsy.

Ratings & reviews

Class rating

(37 reviews)

nice

by kjimenezd7095061 on March 3, 2015

I can understand what they say, now I have to practice I can't wait to see what can I do.

I can understand what they say, now I have to practice I can't wait to see what can I do.

Good Technique

by karunwia5028038 on February 28, 2015

It is a good and innovative way of using butter cream. It is a lot cleaner and saves butter cream.

It is a good and innovative way of using butter cream. It is a lot cleaner and saves butter cream.

Not at all! All of Christina and Valeri's signature looks can be achieved with just a few simple tools: piping bags, a palette knife set and a few simple flower cookie cutters (and even those are optional)!